I am an emeritus professor from Cornell University and was a Commissioned Lay Preacher in the Presbyterian Church (USA). For many years I have followed the Daily Lectionary as printed in the Mission Yearbook of my church. For each day of a two-year cycle, the lectionary lists four psalms and three other scriptural passages--usually one from the Old Testament and two from the New Testament. My practice is to copy down a verse or two from one of the psalms and from each of the other three passages. After I have written out all four selections, I reflect upon them, rearrange their order, and incorporate them into a meditation. Sometimes I retain much of the original wording; sometimes all that remains of a selection is an idea that was stimulated when I read the original words. All selections are from the New Revised Standard Version of the Bible. For the Daily Lectionary, see the link below.

Our God Is a Consuming Fire?--Feb. 3, 2018


As soon as Laban had seen the gold jewelry
the stranger had given his sister,
he hurried out to tender his hospitality;
you say to welcome the poor.

The psalmist asks you for your favor
so it will prosper our work,
but if we want this for our own glory,
remind us, yours is the glory.

We are adjured to worship you in reverence
because you are a consuming fire;
forgive me, God--I prefer to worship you
because of your consuming love.

Lectionary Readings
Ps. 63; 149; 125; 90
Gen. 24:28-38, 49-51
Heb. 12:12-29
John 7:14-36

Selected Verses
Ps. 90:17
Let the favor of the Lord our God be upon us,
          and prosper for us the work of our hands — 

          O prosper the work of our hands!

Gen. 24:30-31a
As soon as [Laban] had seen the nose-ring, and the bracelets on his sister's arms, and when he heard the words of his sister Rebekah, "Thus the man spoke to me," he went to the man; and there he was, standing by the camels at the spring.  He said, "Come in, O blessed of the LORD.  …"

Heb. 12:28-29
Therefore, since we are receiving a kingdom that cannot be shaken, let us give thanks, by which we offer to God an acceptable worship with reverence and awe; for indeed our God is a consuming fire.

John 7:18
"…Those who speak on their own seek their own glory; but the one who seeks the glory of him who sent him is true, and there is nothing false in him.  …"  [Jesus, to his critics in the temple]

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